Was America Founded Upon A Christian Worldview?

By Brannon Howse

Was America really founded as a "nation under God"-a Christian nation? Was there a biblical reason why our founders created a constitutional republic rather than a pure democracy? Or was America actually a secular endeavor by secular men? Was the American Revolution perhaps even contrary to the principles of Christianity?

To answer these questions, we'll examine the writings of the Founding Fathers themselves. But first, I want to cite two sources not known for being conservative. What have Newsweek and Time magazines had to say about the religious foundation of America?

In December 1982, Newsweek did a cover story examining the influence of the Bible on America. The story also discussed the fact that Ronald Reagan and the U.S. Congress declared 1983 the year of the Bible. Newsweek writes, "For centuries [the Bible] has exerted an unrivaled influence on American culture, politics, and social life. Now historians are discovering that the Bible, perhaps even more than the Constitution, is our founding document: The source of the powerful myth of the United States as a special, sacred nation, a people called by God to establish a model society, a beacon to the world."³ Although I don't agree that it is any kind of myth, America was founded by men called by God, and I am pleased Newsweek acknowledged that the Bible was an intricate part of the foundation upon which the nation was built.

On May 25, 1987, Time published an article entitled "Looking to Its Roots" in which we read, "Ours is the only country deliberately founded on a good idea. That good idea combines a commitment to man's inalienable rights with the Calvinist belief in an ultimate moral right and sinful man's obligation to do good. These articles of faith, embodied in the Declaration of Independence and in the Constitution, literally govern our lives today."

Any American who wants to know whether America was founded as a nation under God only needs to spend a few hours reading the writings of the Founders. They were such prolific writers that, even today, handwritten letters and diaries by some of the Founders have not been read and studied. However, the thousands of personal writings, letters, journals, and speeches that have been examined reveal a far different picture than what the liberal revisionist historians want you to think.

After reviewing an estimated fifteen thousand items, including newspaper articles, pamphlets, books, monographs, and so on, written between 1760 and 1805 by the fifty-five men who signed the Constitution, professors Donald S. Lutz and Charles S. Hyneman presented their findings in a 1984 American Political Science Review. Their article, "The Relative Influence of European Writers on Late Eighteenth-Century American Political Thought," revealed that the Bible, especially the book of Deuteronomy, contributed 34 percent of all quotations used by our Founding Fathers.4

The other sources cited include:

•   Baron Charles Montesquieu, 8.3 percent

•   Sir William Blackstone, 7.9 percent

•   John Locke, 2.9 percent

•   David Hume, 2.7 percent

•   Plutarch, 1.5 percent

•   Beccaria, 1.5 percent

•   Trenchard and Gordon, 1.4 percent

•   Delolme, 1.4 percent

•   Samuel von Pufendorf, 1.3 percent

•   Cicero, 1.2 percent

•   Hugo Grotius, 0.9 percent

•   Shakespeare, 0.8 percent

•   Vattel, 0.5 percent.

These additional sources also took 60 percent of their quotes from the Bible. Including both direct and indirect citations, the majority of all quotations referenced by the Founders come from Scripture.5

This is not surprising because many of the Founders were the top religious leaders of their day. Consider, for instance, their backgrounds (most of whom signed the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution):

•   Rev. Dr. John Witherspoon was responsible for two American translations of the Bible, including America's first family Bible.

•   Charles Thompson was responsible for Thompson's Bible.

•   Benjamin Rush not only published the first mass-produced Bible in America, but he also founded America's first Bible Society and the Sunday School movement.

•   Francis Hopkins, a church music director, produced the first purely American hymnbook.6

•   John Langdon and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney founded the American Bible Society.

•   Rufus King was founder of the New York Bible and Common Prayer Book Society.

•   James McHenry founded the Maryland Bible Society.

•   Alexander Hamilton formed the Christian Constitutional Society to elect people to office who would support Christianity and the Constitution of the United States.7

•   John Adams wrote to Thomas Jefferson on June 28, 1813, "The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were . . . the general principles of Christianity. . . . I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God."

•   Thomas Jefferson in 1774, while serving in the Virginia Assembly, personally introduced a resolution calling for a day of fasting and prayer. Later, while serving as the governor of Virginia (1779–81), Jefferson decreed a day of "Public and solemn thanksgiving and prayer to the Almighty God."

•   John Jay, the original chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and one of the men most responsible for the Constitution, wrote, "Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty-as well as the privilege and interest-of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers."8

•   George Washington in his Farewell Address argued for the vital role of religion and morality in our nation: "Of all the dispositions and habits, which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars."9 And also: "without such a firm foundation, liberties and freedoms were at risk: Let it simply be asked, 'Where is the security for life, for reputation, and for property, if the sense of religious obligation desert?'"10

•   On June 28, 1787, frustrations were running high at the Constitutional Convention when Benjamin Franklin, arguably one of America's least religious founders, admonished his colleagues: "If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We've been assured in the sacred writing that 'Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.'"11

Footnotes:

4 William J. Federer, The Ten Commandments and Their Influence on American Law (St. Louis, MO: Amerisearch Inc., 2003), 19.

5 Ibid. Federer's sources are as follows: Donald S. Lutz and Charles S. Hyneman, "The Relative Influence of European Writers on Late Eighteenth-Century American Political Thought," American Political Science Review 189 (1984), 189–97. (Courtesy of Dr. Wayne House of Dallas Theological Seminary.) John Eidsmoe, Christianity and the Constitution-The Faith of Our Founding Fathers (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, A Mott Media Book, 1987; 6th printing, 1993), 51–53. Origins of American Constitutionalism (1987). Stephen K. McDowell and Mark A. Beliles, America's Providential History (Charlottesville, VA: Providence Press, 1988), 156.

6 Information provided by David Barton's Wallbuilders (Aledo, TX), www.wallbuilders.com.

7 Ibid.

8 John Jay, The Correspondence and Public Papers of John Jay, 1794–1826, Henry P. Johnson, ed., vol. 4 (Reprinted NY: Burt Franklin, 1970), 393.

9 David Barton, Original Intent (Aledo, TX: Wallbuilders), 214.

10 Washington's Farewell Address.

11 Bill Federer, America's God and Country (St. Louis, MO: Amerisearch, 2000), 247.